Here is the traditional English cozy brought up to date in loving detail, complete with a spectacular endpaper map of the village of Nether Monkslip where former spy-turned vicar Max Tudor is busily composing his Easter sermon while preparing a dinner party to welcome a bevy of newcomers.

The guests include a West End dramatist who, we hope, treats his actors better than his wife. When one of the guests ends up dead, Max is forced to turn sleuth once again, cleverly working his way through clues and red herrings that are somehow connected to the paintings of a local artist. “Pagan Spring” is sure to appeal to fans of mysteries done in the grand old style.

Then We Take Berlin

John Lawton (Atlantic)

Series character Frederick Troy is absent (except for a very, very token appearance) in this new World War II thriller from a writer whose only equals are Alan Furst and David Downing. “Then We Take Berlin” is the kind of book that reminds us that at times there is a very thin line between escape fiction and serious literature.

Few other writers could evoke in as few words what walking into a Nazi death camp was like or how a simple tube of lipstick could restore humanity in women who had given up all hope.

The book is set during the war, though framed by events from 1963, and features John Wilfrid Holderness, a.k.a. Joe Wilderness, who escaped a life of poverty and crime when he was recruited by British intelligence for special work in post-war Berlin. The 1963 parts don’t really work, but the part in between will blow you away.

The Star of Istanbul

Robert Olen Butler (Mysterious Press)

The publisher makes much of the fact that the author is a Pulitzer Prize winner, but you needn’t fret: “The Star of Istanbul” is pure escape fiction. It’s larger-than-life hero is Christopher Marlowe Cobb, a war correspondent, who does a bit of spying for Uncle Sam when he isn’t filing stories.

The world is at war, except for the U.S., a deplorable situation Cobb blames on President Woodrow Wilson. Of course, U.S. neutrality doesn’t keep Cobb from pursuing German spies across the globe, from the doomed Lusitania to the streets of London and finally to Istanbul where he rescues the title character, a ravishing silent-screen actress with more than her share of secrets.

Cobb is as handy with a gun as he is successful in bedding the actress. He’s also more foolhardy than brave at times. You won’t believe a minute of it, but you’ll still have a couple of very enjoyable hours.

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